Pinned
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden appeared at a campaign watch party in Atlanta following the debate.
Supporters chanted “four more years.”
“I can’t thank you all enough,” the first lady said. “Joe, you did such a great job.”
Following the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris made the rounds on CNN and MSNBC.
“It was a slow start,” she acknowledged on CNN.
But, she remarked, it’s about “the choice” the American people will be making in November.
The candidates finished the debate without meeting for the customary handshake, and cameras faded to black.
It's tradition to begin and end presidential debates with a handshake, but even when they took the stage, neither President Biden nor President Trump moved to do so.
Former President Donald Trump was able to make the final closing statement after President Joe Biden won the coin toss ahead of the debate and opted to choose his podium position instead of having the last word.
“Like so many politicians, this man is just a complainer,” he said about President Biden, suggesting that Americans don’t “respect” the president due to the chaos at the southern border.
“He said, ‘We want to do this, to do that, we want to get rid of this tax, that tax,’ but he doesn’t do anything,” the former president said.
In his closing statement, President Biden hit former President Trump on the economy and the United States not having a fair tax system.
He reiterated his pledge not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000. He also decried the deficit going up under his predecessor.
Moreover, President Biden hit the former president for his tariff policy.
Because President Joe Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term if reelected, moderator Dana Bash asked him how he would address voter concerns over the capacity to “handle the toughest job in the world well into [his] 80s.”
President Biden noted that for much of his career, he was criticized for being the “youngest person in politics” after being the second youngest person to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
“Now I’m the oldest … Just look at the record, look at what I’ve done. Look, I’ve turned around a horrible situation,” President Biden said, touting investments in the nation’s infrastructure.
Former President Trump was asked if he would pledge to accept the 2024 election results once all legal challenges are exhausted.
"If it's a fair and legal and good election, absolutely," he said after taking a detour to address other issues. When asked if he would say that political violence is not acceptable, he answered, "it's totally unacceptable."
President Biden said illicit fentanyl and fentanyl byproducts "went down, for a while."
He said the border deal he proposed included a budget for large machines to detect fentanyl coming across the border, as well as more border personnel.
“We need those machines,” he said.
On the topic of the Ukraine war, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a counterprogramming event that Russian President Vladimir Putin had asked “to settle the war from the beginning.”
Mr. Putin agreed to the Minsk Accords in 2019, Mr. Kennedy said, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy ran for Ukraine president in 2019 promising to sign the Minsk Accords.
Mr. Kennedy said Mr.Putin wanted to keep NATO out of Ukraine.
In response to former President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Americans “won’t have a country left anymore” if President Joe Biden wins the election and continues his current immigration policies, the president defended the United States and its image on the world stage.
“We're the most admired country in the world. With the United States of America, there's nothing beyond our capacity,” President Biden said.
He continued by saying the country has the “finest military in the history of the world.”
Former President Trump lamented that under President Biden’s watch, migrants who have crossed the border illegally are getting Social Security, leading to the program being on the road to insolvency.
President Biden responded that the people crossing the border during his presidency are a reason the United States has the fastest-growing economy in the world.
President Biden said he will "make the very wealthy begin to pay their fair share" in order to keep Social Security solvent.
That one action "will keep it solvent," he said.
Moderator Dana Bash asked President Joe Biden what he would say to black Americans who may feel he hasn’t made “more progress” despite lower unemployment for people of color.
The president suggested that there has been a historic increase in small businesses run by black Americans and highlighted efforts to reduce discrimination in corporations.
“So there's more to be done, considerably more to be done. But we've done a great deal so far, and I'm not letting up, and they know it,” President Biden said.
Former President Trump said he never asked his supporters to enter the U.S. Capitol to interrupt the counting of the votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
"I said [to march] 'peacefully and patriotically," former President Trump said.
He said he had offered 10,000 National Guard that day and that the Washington mayor declined. He said everyone knew a lot of people were coming.
President Biden touted Israel and America’s allies endorsing the proposal he put forward, which he said at the time was Israel’s–to end the war between Israel and Hamas that has gone on since Oct. 7, 2023. It was the day the terrorist group launched the deadliest single-day attack of Jews since the Holocaust. The multifaceted proposal included a release of all hostages in exchange for an eventual permanent ceasefire.
President Biden said that “only Hamas wants the war to continue.” He acknowledged that he denied Israel 2,000-pound bombs, citing that they should not be used in populated areas.
He said the United States has come to Israel’s rescue as the biggest producer of military support for Israel. He said Hamas cannot be allowed to continue.
When asked about the war in Ukraine, former President Donald Trump affirmed, “I’ll have that war settled” before he even takes office.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had released terms of a potential ceasefire under the conditions that Russia keeps the Ukrainian territory it has already claimed and Ukraine abandons its bid to join NATO.
But former President Trump said they were “not acceptable.”
Former President Trump denied President Biden’s reference to a media report that he had told a four-star general at a cemetery in France, “I don't want to go in there because they're a bunch of losers …losers and suckers.”
First reported in Atlantic Magazine, former President Trump, in a conversation with senior staff members, rejected the idea of visiting Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018, reportedly saying, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” And in a separate conversation, the same report said he referred to more than 1,800 marines who fell at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.
“That was a made up quote, suckers and losers,” said former President Trump. “They made it up. It was in a third-rate magazine that's failing, like many of these magazines. He made that up.
President Joe Biden highlighted passing the PACT Act of 2022 during a discussion on veterans at the CNN presidential debate. The law improved access to medical care for veterans exposed to toxic substances during military service.
The president said veterans are “better off” after passing the act. “One million of them now have insurance, and their families have it.”
“Whether it was Agent Orange or burn pits, they're all being covered now,” President Biden said, adding that former President Donald Trump opposed the law.
Former President Trump said the economy was the best in U.S. history under his administration while President Biden said that the former president left him an economy that was in freefall. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blamed both men for running up the national debt and jointly creating inflation.
President Trump entered office promising to balance the budget, but instead he “spent more money in office that every president in history combined,” Mr. Kennedy said during a counterprogramming event streamed on X.
President Biden will surpass that mark, he said.
President Biden touted that the Border Patrol union endorsed his border security legislation, which Senate Republicans blocked recently. He lamented the family separation policy that was under his predecessor.
Former President Trump retorted, “We had the safest border in the history of our country.”
The Republican said Biden should have kept the Trump policies–which included requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico pending adjudication–but lamented that he did not.
President Biden said he was against late-term abortion after former President Trump's criticism of "extreme" laws allowing abortion in the ninth month, or after birth.
"We are not for late-term abortions, period, period," President Biden said.
Former President Donald Trump, said he would not block access to abortion pills, when asked to address the Supreme Court’s approval of access.
He also said he supported the exceptions for incest, rape, and the life of the mother.
“I believe in the exceptions,” he said, adding “but you have to get elected.”
Moderator Jake Tapper asked former President Donald Trump about his intention to impose a 10 percent tariff on all goods entering the United States, including those from China.
“How will you ensure that that doesn't drive prices even higher?” Mr. Tapper asked.
“Not going to drive them higher. It's just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China and many others … to just force them to pay us a lot of money [and] reduce our deficit tremendously,” former President Trump said.
Former President Trump said his 2017 tax cuts spurred “the greatest economy that we've ever seen just prior to COVID.”
He touted lowering the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 39 percent and the revenue the United States was getting in oil as he was credited with having an energy policy that consisted of producing oil and gas domestically.
The debate kicked off with a question about the economy, the consistent top concern for voters according to polls.
"President Biden, inflation has slowed, but prices remain high," Mr. Tapper said, citing 20 percent increases in grocery prices and 30 percent increases in home prices.
"What do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under President Trump?"
For the first time in almost four years, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are meeting to debate and make their case why they should stay or return, respectively, to the Oval Office.
The debate, airing on CNN and simulcasting on many platforms, is being moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in a studio at CNN’s headquarters in Georgia.
President Biden is on the right side of the television screen, and former President Donald Trump is on the left. They did not shake hands upon taking the stage.
ATLANTA—Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) responded to The Epoch Times’s question about her chances of becoming the former president’s running mate.
“I'm honored to have my name in consideration. I'm going to continue working hard as the representative for New York's 21st congressional district and as the House Republican Conference chair, I'm proud to be the first member of Congress to endorse President Trump for 2024,” she said.
Ms. Stefanik said the Republican Party is “really unified across America to save this country, that means electing President Donald J. Trump.”
Less than 30 minutes before President Joe Biden took the stage, he joked about conjecture that he could be using performance enhancements for his debate with former President Donald Trump.
“I don't know what they've got in these performance enhancers, but I'm feeling pretty jacked up,” he said on X. “Try it yourselves, folks.”
He shared a picture with a can of water called “Dark Brandon’s Secret Sauce.” It included his picture on the label that says, “Get real jack. It’s just water.”
In an interview with CNN, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump should shake hands before the presidential debate.
“I like civility,” he said. “So walking in confidently, shaking a hand—I think our kids are watching as well. I prefer a world like that—that’s personal.”
Mr. Newsom said he would work with anyone who wants to “advance the cause of this country,” and that “goes back to this ability of shaking someone’s hand.”
ATLANTA—Danielle Alvarez, whose loved ones escaped Cuba’s communist regime, said Hispanics who came legally to the United States respect former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Ms. Alvarez said her uncle was jailed for 26 years in Cuba “for no reason other than disagreeing” with Fidel Castro’s dictatorship.
“When we come to the United States, we seek the ability to pursue our American Dream. We're very entrepreneurial, and the support for that was better under President Trump,” she told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview in the spin room at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion near the debate site.
ATLANTA—Former GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told reporters former President Donald Trump has not asked him to be vice president.
"He has not asked me to be his vice president, whoever he asks is going to have, I think, a remarkable ability to serve this country in taking that American First agenda even further," he said.
Mr. Ramaswamy predicted that former President Trump would not be combative on the debate stage, but rather unifying.
ATLANTA—Former President Donald Trump has stated that he has chosen his vice presidential running mate, and that his choice would be present in Atlanta.
But one of those potential running mates, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), told reporters: “Donald Trump's gonna make that decision....You know, there's a lot of us here in Atlanta.”
Mr. Donalds said nothing further about his chances of becoming the former president’s running mate.
ATLANTA—California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat surrogate for President Joe Biden, told reporters about the importance of tonight’s historic debate.
“In close elections, generally, everything matters,” he said during a press scrum in the “spin room” at the McCamish Pavilion, across from the site where President Biden and former President Donald Trump will take the stage at 9 p.m. Eastern.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), a nonprofit organization of journalists who cover the president and the White House, issued a statement today criticizing CNN for only allowing photographers and CNN reporters inside the studio for the presidential debate.
“WHCA is deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio,” the organization said.
CNN said a single print pool reporter can go inside during a commercial break to “briefly observe the setting.”
CNN will host the first presidential debate of the 2024 election tonight at 9 p.m. ET with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. This is not only the earliest presidential debate in an election year in modern history, but it is also the first time a sitting president has debated a former president.
Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate, and CNN will broadcast the 90-minute debate live. It will be simulcast on other networks, including NTD, our sister media outlet.
There will be no studio audience, candidates’ microphones will be muted while their opponent is speaking, and two minutes are allotted for question answers with one minute for rebuttals.
Independent presidential Robert F. Kennedy Jr. envisioned sharing the stage with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump at CNN’s presidential debate on June 27.
Shut out of the forum, he will instead hold what his campaign has called “The Real Debate” in West Hollywood at the same time the current and former president meet in Atlanta.
Live streamed on X, Mr. Kennedy’s event will take place in a studio with a live audience, unlike the forum in Atlanta, where no audience members are permitted.
ATLANTA, Ga.—All eyes are on Thursday night’s highly anticipated showdown in Atlanta, where President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off for the first debate of the 2024 general election.
The 81-year-old Democrat incumbent and his 78-year-old opponent will be making their first appearance together in four years in what will potentially be a game-changing event in the presidential race.
Since the debate pits the two oldest presidential candidates in American history, their energy, appearance, reasoning, and reactions to questions will be intensely scrutinized. Hence, many regard this debate as more of a stage performance.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will square off in their first debate of 2024 on June 27, aiming to present different visions for the future of the United States.
The high-stakes debate will be a crucial platform for the two oldest candidates in U.S. history to demonstrate their energy, appearance, coherence, and responsiveness, making it a pivotal event that could shape the presidential race, according to political analysts.
CNN will host the debate at its Atlanta studios. The 81-year-old incumbent and his 78-year-old opponent will be standing throughout the debate, which will last 90 minutes. There will be two commercial breaks, according to the network.